Nasty Android Trojan Spotted in the Wild

Security firm Lookout warns that a new Trojan affecting Android devices has emerged in China. It's being called "Geinimi" and it's capable of compromising a "significant amount of personal data" harvested from a user's phone, which is then sent to remote servers.

"The most sophisticated Android malware we've seen to date, Geinimi is also the first Android malware in the wild that displays botnet-like capabilities," Lookout says. "Once the malware in installed on a user's phone, it has the potential to receive commands from a remote server that allow the owner of that server to control the phone."

Right now it's being distributed via legitimate applications (mostly games) in third-party Chinese Android app markets, though Lookout warns it could be packaged into apps in other geographic regions, too.